Leadville Silver Rush 15 Miler (Race Recap)

Leadville, CO

Saturday, July 12

Half Marathon #200

Weather - Sunny and warm

Arrived at the race start around 8:15, which was later than I had planned. I had to use the bathroom on the way to pick up my bib. Saw Jandy and Josephine on the way back to the car to get my pack. I had developed a blister on my left heel from a pair of my Freebirds, so I had Ben put some tape on. By the time I got everything ready I had enough time to use the bathroom one more time and then found the girls for our start.

Me, Josephine, Jandy

So while I've run the Leadville marathon and heavy half, I have never run anything in Leadville that starts at the ski hill. I'm glad Ben got a picture of our start - I'm in this mess somewhere. I have no idea what my pace was going up the hill because I don't think the timing mat was working - but I'm just happy I wasn't last.

Thankfully once we got to the top of the hill the course leveled out. I took a short walk break because my heart rate was already through the roof. We were on a dirt road that was relatively wide, so we didn't get too bottlenecked here. I was surprised at the number of people that had poles out - especially in this area. This course has about half the gain (maybe even a third) of the heavy half and doesn't go up nearly as high. Anyway, the course went down a bit before we were briefly on a paved section before the climbing started. I caught up to Jandy and Josephine on the first hill and we leapfrogged a bit on the flatter section until we got about 2.5 miles out and I didn't see them again. We had some double track that was gradually uphill.

Thankfully after this section we went into a more tree-lined section for a few miles. I knew I would appreciate the shade on the way back. We took a hard right and the grade of the climbs went up. I could see a group of people in front of me that I hoped to catch up to. Apparently my guess of just the one aid station at the turn around was reality! Came to a clearing and there was a nice view (and some port-o-potties), but we had to go up another few tenths to the very small aid station.

There were only two tents - one for medical and one for food/liquids. I pulled out my cup and took a little coke, although it wasn't very cold so I didn't even finish it. We had to do a weird loop to head back down and I think I passed probably 15 people here that were just sort of hanging out at the aid station. I knew it was "almost" all downhill and I wanted to be done! I saw Josephine and Jandy and they only seemed to be about a half mile behind me. I did a decent amount of running until the turn off (I think it was more downhill feeling). 

Once I got to the more tree-lined areas I was definitely walking more and just hoping to pass a few people here and there. I was tired and definitely feeling hot. I knew that the course made a detour at the end of the course but wasn't sure what the distance would be and a I had an "A" goal of finishing in about 3.5 hours.

I got to the paved area and knew that on the way out it had been a mile. Imagine my dismay when we got close enough to see the finish line only to take a hard right and go up some single track. A couple that I was near told me it was over a mile from here. UGH. And most of it was uphill, which I thought I was done with.

We finally crested the top of the ski hill that we had run up, but we didn't just run down it again, no, we had to go around to a different hill. In that time I got passed by the first 50 mile runner (they did start a few hours before us at least) and then I bombed the downhill.

I was as few minutes over my goal, but considering the course was nearly 16 miles, I wasn't mad about it. It was a fun surprise to have Ana at the finish line in addition to Ben!!

Time - 3:38:40

Garmin Time - 3:38:41

Garmin Distance - 15.81 miles

Elevation Gain - 1,919'

Overall Place - 98/155

Gender Place - 53/93

Mile 1 - 12:57

Mile 2 - 14:24

Mile 3 - 12:03

Mile 4 - 15:11

Mile 5 - 15:00

Mile 6 - 13:57

Mile 7 - 16:13

Mile 8 - 15:34

Mile 9 - 12:19

Mile 10 - 12:04

Mile 11 - 13:35

Mile 12 - 11:51

Mile 13 - 14:24

Mile 14 - 13:28

Mile 15 - 14:14

Mile 15.81 - 11:27

Thoughts:

• I think I actually like this course better than the Heavy Half - mainly because there are parts of it that are actually shaded!
• Kinda sucky to only have one aid station for a half marathon, but since I was using this as a training run for a 200 it was fine as I have to go a  long way between aid for those.
• Nice shirt and nice medal.
• Finish line is nice with runner food and beer and vendor tents. Not a lot for spectators, however.
• Would I run again? Maybe? It was actually REALLY affordable - only $78 after fees.